Merry Christmas

Have a Merry Christmas! We are going to be filled to the brim with joy celebrating our Saviors' birth and a spending time with some of the people we love the most :)

Keeping with the Tradition

One of Kyle's favorite memories is cutting down a Christmas tree and then watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation {and quoting the entire movie} with his family. This year the weather did not allow us to go with Kyle's entire family {dang the rain}, so we decided to wait another week and get our Christmas tree last weekend. We took Bentley along for his first Christmas tree experience...let's just say he loved it and it was really fun to take him along.

Bentley was too excited to sit for a photo

On our way to get the tree

This picture is priceless...Bentley was taking it all in :)

Here is the winner :)

Kenny says it best

Have you heard this song? Kenny Chesney is singing what I want for Christmas {if money was not a factor}. I would love to go to a tropical location when the weather here is snowy, cold, and bitter. "I looove the sun" {that was for you Leah} and not having pale white skin is a plus too :) . Since a beach vacation will not be happening this year, I will just have to listen to this song and imagine I am at the beach :)

{source}

"Take me to the Islands put my feet in the sand,

rockin' to and fro with the rhythm of the ocean,
singin Silent Night with the palm trees ablowin'.."

A Christmas First

I saw all these cute ideas on Pinterest and knew I wanted to have some of the besties over for a gingerbread house making party. Not as many people could come as I would have hoped but it still was a great time with friends, laughing at our not so pinterest looking houses, and eating sweet treats {except for the icing that came in the kit :)} The kit we got had five small houses which was the perfect size to decorate in my opinion and we all had our own house :)

Our table setup

{inspiration}

I love that someone came up with a cute way to dress up a paper plate

{inspiration}

{recipe, recipe}

{recipe}

My house. These houses were so tiny it was hard to decorate the sides, so the roof got the most attention for my house.

Carrie's house...this one gave us a lot of laughs throughout the night. Her icing was really runny so by the time she was done it looked like a bloody gingerbread house. But the sprinkles on the roof give it the feel of not so creepy, right?

Eric's house, please note the little trees on his roof he made. We were all impressed with this gingerbread house making skills.

Tiff's house. Tiff had lots of fun eating the icing while making her house :) Sadly this cute house fell apart when she was leaving my house

I'm really glad I got to do this and I'm sure next year pinterest will inspire me to throw another party :)

It's that time of year...

It's time for family Christmas cards! Kyle's family always does photo Christmas cards and it is a tradition that we have been doing with our small family. About a month ago we got our pictures taken at Mt Echo park. I saw a deal on cincysavers.com for one hour of photography for $25, I did not want to pass up this deal so I bought one for me and Carrie so that we could get pictures taken by a pro this year. For our photo session I wanted pictures of Kyle and I celebrating our one year but also some with Bentley for Christmas cards and for the house. I won't mention the photographer because Carrie and I both were not really satisfied with our pictures. The positives are that we did not have to pay a lot, he gave us all the pictures that he took, he let me use all the props that I had brought, and edited some of them. The negatives were it took three weeks to get our pictures back, I thought his attire for the session was not professional {he showed up in sweat pants and a t-shirt}, and the photos were okay. It was cool to try out a photographer that was really reasonable but I will probably not pay to get our pictures taken again for a Christmas card :)

Here are some of the good ones...most of the pictures with props were inspired by pinterest.

{inspiration}

We love playing with our pup!

{inspiration}

{inspiration}

Here are some of the ones that were not so flattering/hard to have a dog in your picture when all he wants to do is chase squirrels/weird posing/bad ones

Hear no evil, see no evil?...not really sure why we look like this :)

Kyle and I are not good with the serious look

Awkward hand holding

The photographer had kyle act like he was posing...I told him we were celebrating one year of marriage

Again..we are not the type of people that can pull off a "look deeply into ones another eyes" photo

Weird posing

 

"Gently" wanting Bentley to look a certain way :)

Here is the one that will be coming to your mailbox soon

{inspired}

His 1st Christmas

It was not only Kyle & I's 1st Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. but it was the 1st Christmas with our big pup Bentley!

Bentley looks so mean in this picture {which is not his personality at all, he runs from little dogs that bark at him :)}

Here is a good one :) He loves his new toy!

Semi-Homemade Christmas

I wanted to make Baby Caleb's gift and since he needed some pictures for his room I thought this idea would be perfect! His room is also jungled theme so this was a must!

Who knew you needed to check the size when you ordered a book, not me. The book I ordered online {on the right} for a great deal was obviously too small but I finally found the right size at Barnes and Noble

I used Kyle's knife to get the pages I wanted

Finished product. All I did was take the pages I wanted and framed them, simple as that. I LOVE how it turned out! {ignore the glare from the window on the frames}

A closer look

I could not be more excited about how this turned out! It was simple, quick, and did not cost a lot.

Project Cost:

Three 8 x 10 Frames from Michael's: $11.00 on sale

Book from Barnes and Noble: $18.00 {yes, I know that is a lot for a book {do they want parents to read to their kids?} but I'm sure you could find it cheaper online but I was on a time crunch}

I will never look at a book the same!

Thanks for the inspiration and check out the tutorial and awesome blog, it is full of great ideas!

Simply having a wonderful baking time...

Have you heard this song {If Kyle loved cookies this could be our festive Christmas song :)}

Here are a few things I made this Christmas. I am by no means a baker, but I like to try new things if it does not look too hard.

I made these with my friend Theresa. They looked really cool but I don't think I'll be making them again. The Jolly Racher center was hard to eat. You were not sure if you should chew it {since it's a cookie} or suck on it because of the Jolly Rancher.

This is an ornament cake I tried. It did not turn out the best since some of the cake stuck to the pan but it was still fun to make. I choose fun fetti cake with nerd rope and skittles to decorate with.